William Blake
William Blake
William Blakewas an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic works have been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 November 1757
What is a wife and what is a harlot? What is a church and what is a theatre? are they two and not one? Can they exist separate? Are not religion and politics the same thing? Brotherhood is religion. O demonstrations of reason dividing families in cruelty and pride!
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.
Sooner strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
A dead body revenges not injuries.
Knowledge is Life with wings
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds and binding with briars my joys and desires. (from 'The Garden of Love')
Mercy is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
You've always had the power right there in your shoes, you just had to learn it for yourself.
Praises reap not! Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
He who wants, but doesn't act, is a pest.
Let men do their duty and the women will be such wonders; the female lives from the light of the male: see a male's female dependants, you know the man.
Listen to the fool's reproach! It is a kingly title!
Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public Records to be true.